Boggart
by LeCoeur
Summary: After their first DADA lesson with Professor Lupin, the Gryffindor third-years do a little group-therapy.
1. The Common Room Fire

Author's Disclaimer:  Wish these characters were mine, but they're JK Rowling's.  I'm just jealous because she gets to play with them more than I do.

Author's Note:  Will take each kid in turn, but it's slow goin'.  If you like it, please review and check back; I'm doing my best to complete it!

"Boggart" 

            The Gryffindor third-years sat before the common room fire.  This was not terribly out of the ordinary, for those in the same year tended to associate more frequently with each other than with significantly older or younger students.  On this night, however, the third-years were huddled unusually close together, occupying both the sofa and armchairs closest to the fire, gathered near each other as though hoping for strength in numbers.  Stranger still, each seemed to be staring into the dancing flames, absorbed so deeply in his or her own thoughts that no one had spoken in nearly half an hour.  Neville, Parvati, Dean, and Lavender sat shoulder-to-shoulder on the sofa, Seamus at Lavender's feet.  Harry and Hermione had each claimed an armchair, Crookshanks curled in Hermione's lap, and Ron had perched himself on an arm of Hermione's chair, his hands supporting the bulk of his weight and feet crossed at the ankle for balance.

            "So that Professor Lupin," said Seamus finally, "he's dead cool.  He really knows what he's doing."

            Lavender murmured in agreement, and Parvati nodded silently.  Seamus continued talking, still staring unfocusedly into the fire.  "That was a really good lesson.  I bet I have nightmares tonight though," he finished quietly.

            "But you conquered your fear, Seamus," Hermione said encouragingly.  "Just try to do it in your dreams."

            "Oh, sure," Seamus laughed, glancing up at her.  "It's one thing to do it in a room full of people, in broad daylight, wide awake with a teacher behind you."  He turned back to the fire.  Lavender finished his thought for him, adding, "It's something completely different when you're asleep.  You really have no control over things like that."  A few heads nodded knowingly.

            Parvati squeaked audibly and gasped, "Ohh Seamus, now that you've said it I'm _bound_ to have nightmares!"  The girlish fear in her voice made Dean snigger, and she turned to hit him on the shoulder.  "Don't laugh at me, Dean Thomas!  A nightmare's how I got mine in the first place!"

            Lavender leaned forward to look at her friend.  "Really, Parvati?  I never knew that!"

            "Well," said Parvati uncomfortably, "we've never come face-to-face with our worst fears, have we?"

            "I have," interrupted Neville.  "I see mine almost every day."  He sighed.

            "I've seen mine, too," said Seamus from the floor.

            "Yours is from a nightmare, too?" Lavender asked his head.

            "No, really seen it," he repeated dully.

            "But Seamus," Lavender said quietly, "they don't really exist."  He craned his head to meet her eyes.

            "Have _you_ ever come across one?" he snapped.  She shook her head, looking embarrassed and apologetic.  "Then you wouldn't know."

            "Anyway," said Hermione thoughtfully, trying to ease the tension, "the lesson wasn't about whether or not what we're afraid of really exists.  It was about confronting and controlling our fears."

            "Well, you can't control your nightmares," said Parvati matter-of-factly.

            "Or your boggarts, really," added Harry, speaking for the first time that evening.  The rest of the group acknowledged the observation, then fell silent once more.


	2. Parvati

            After several minutes of quiet unease, Ron rose and headed up the stairs to the boys' dormitory.  When he returned a moment later, he was carrying a large chocolate bar and his pillow.

            "What?" he asked through a mouthful of chocolate.  Hermione was looking at him quizzically.  He offered the candy to Seamus and Parvati, explaining, "Professor Lupin seems to think this stuff cures everything.  It's as good excuse as any."  Thrusting the bar into Seamus's hand, Ron threw his pillow down and sprawled on his back in front of the fire.  Those seated around him began passing the candy, each breaking off a large piece in turn.

            "Parvati," Lavender blurted out so suddenly that Dean and Neville both jumped, "why didn't you ever tell me you were scared of mummies?  We've been friends for _ages_, and I mean, I told you about . . . that thing that frightened me."  She sounded a little hurt.

            Parvati swallowed and answered slowly, "Well, it's not really something I like to think about.  You never talk about that thing you're afraid of.  What does it matter now though?  Everyone knows."

            "Why mummies, of all things though?" chimed in Dean.  "I mean, they're a little goofy don't you think?"

            "Oh, and a crawling hand isn't?" retorted Hermione, half-joking.

            "Besides," said Parvati, "it was a _nightmare_, I didn't really have any choice in the matter, did I?"  She noticed they were all watching her now.  "Oh fine," she sighed, "shall I tell you _all_ about it?"  The question was dripping with sarcasm, but Ron rolled onto his side and said in complete seriousness, "Yeah, P'vati, it'll take our minds off our own boggarts!"

            She rolled her eyes at him and, sensing that arguing would be a losing battle, agreed, "but only if someone else tells about theirs, too."  Lavender and Seamus both nodded solemnly.  "Fine, then," Parvati said heavily, shifting to fold her legs under her and resting her head against the couch cushion.

            "I guess it started when I was little – like six or seven years old – I used to be really, really scared of my parents dying.  Padma always got on really well with Mum when we were growing up, and I used to get along better with our dad.  So anyway, one summer Padma and I went to the museum on a daycare field trip.  Most of the tour was about Egypt 'cos I think it was a traveling exhibit that had just come to town.  If you've never seen a real mummy, consider yourself lucky because they're totally creepy.  We were all so short, we were eye-level with the big, um, coffins – sarcophagi – and the museum leaves them part-way open, and you can actually see the body in there.  The eyes, the wrappings, everything – it was horrible."  Lavender squirmed appreciatively.

            "Well after the exhibit they explained how the ancient Egyptians preserved the bodies and all that.  I dunno _why_ they thought a load of school kids should hear all that, but . . . well, they told us all about it.  It really was disgusting – Padma almost started crying.

            "That happened in the summer, and when school started back up, I started having these recurring dreams.  Yeah, it would've been just after my seventh birthday, then.  I'd dream that my dad and I were walking through a forest, and it would start to rain.  He would begin running to find cover, only I could never keep up with him because I was too little, my legs were too short.  Every dream ended that way – he'd be running away from me and I'd be calling for him to slow down.  So after having those dreams for a month or whatever, they changed a bit.  I finally caught up with him one night, but . . . Well, I reached a clearing, and he was laying on a fallen tree trunk, and I was scared to go near him because he wasn't moving.  So I was standing there watching, and my mum walked out from behind some trees.  She was dressed all funny, and we're kind of dark-skinned y'know – she looked like one of the Egyptians from the museum.  She saw me and smiled and said that dad was dead and she had to bury him.  And she – she took out all these jars and bandages from under her robes and. . . ."  Parvati stopped, searching for the right words.  "And well, she started turning Dad into a mummy.  Dean, don't laugh at me!"  She hit him again on the shoulder.

            "Anyway, so she wrapped him up and put all his . . . well, parts of him in jars.  Ugh.  And she picked him up and carried him back into the trees.  I followed to see where she was going and she dropped him into a hole that had been dug back there.  I dreamt that a few times.  She would sometimes try to get me to help her bury him, but I never did.  Eventually the dreams stopped being about me and my mum and dad, and they'd just start with me wandering around the woods by myself, carrying a bunch of flowers.  I'd end up at the clearing where my dad was buried and go up to his headstone to put the flowers on it.  But one night when I was kneeling there, the ground started moving.  I jumped up and ran to hide behind a tree because I didn't know what was going on.  My dad's grave was all shaking, and I saw his hands poke up out of the dirt.  Yeah!"  Neville had just made an indistinct sound to her right.

            "After a few nights of waking up from fear, I slept long enough for my dad's whole . . . y'know, mummy to come out of the ground.  He'd come up and start walking toward me, hiding behind that tree.  When he got too close, I'd try to run, but my feet wouldn't work and I'd just be stuck there, watching this mummy coming after me.  One night he finally got me. . . ."  Parvati trailed off, taking another bite of chocolate before continuing.

            "He grabbed me around the middle and dragged me down into the ground with him.  Mum showed up above us with a shovel and began heaping dirt on top of us.  I couldn't breathe 'cos the mummy was holding me too tightly and my mouth was all filled with dirt.  I woke up screaming and crying . . . it was awful.  Mum came running in the room all worried and made me tell her about all the dreams.  I never had the nightmares again after that night."

            She pressed her lips together, and the rest of the third-years stared at her in silence.

            "Wow," whispered Dean finally.

            "That's horrible!" exclaimed Lavender sympathetically.  Parvati nodded.  "Oooh, Parvati, you should tell it to Professor Trelawny!  I wonder what she'd make of it!"

            "I don't want to know," said Parvati resolutely.  "And I don't want to talk about it anymore."

            "Oh," said Lavender softly, sounding disappointed.

            "I don't blame you, Parvati," said Hermione crisply, "I wouldn't tell her either."

Parvati nodded curtly.  "Yeah.  Well, that's my boggart.  Now someone else go."  She appeared very shaken.  No one else seemed to want to follow her story.

"Oh, all right," sighed Seamus after a few minutes.  "It's only fair, after all."  Heads turned to face him, and he took a swig of pumpkin juice, apparently preparing himself for the worst.


End file.
